Solstice Quilt

I am really excited about finally finishing this quilt, and I thought it was fitting to share about it today since it's the Winter Solstice! I started cutting and piecing the quilt top at my guild retreat last May (2015) and then it sat in my stack of quilt tops waiting to be quilted. I had backing and binding ready for it, all I needed to do was baste and quilt it.

The fabric I used is entirely from Kate Spain's Winter/Christmas line from a few years ago named Solstice. It's difficult to photograph, but the white is a really pretty white on white snowflake print. The pattern is the Swell quilt from Camille Roskelly's book Simply Retro.

Last week I pulled out the quilt top, stitched the backing, basted everything together, and went to work quilting it. I chose to do a simple all over stipple with Aurifil 50wt thread in Dove(2600). Kim of My Go-Go Life introduced me to the color a little over a year ago, and I am so glad she did! It seriously blends into everything!

You can see here that it stands out the most against the darker red fabric, but everywhere else it blends right into the colors around it. I was able to get this sucker quilted in a couple of hours, grabbing moments here and there when Sammy was asleep.

 My backing is another print from the Solstice line and at first I didn't really like it because I thought it looked a little boring. Once the quilt was finished, I held it up and was so glad I chose this print though. It looks so stinking cool, and once again I matched the pattern on the backing so there isn't a visible seam.

Here is a close up where I matched it. I love this technique so much, and it is definitely worth the extra 20 minutes it takes! I still have a slew of quilt tops waiting to be quilted, including another Christmas one, but I have a feeling this is my final big project of 2016.